Statement by
H.E. Dr.
Surakiart Sathirathai,
Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Thailand
59th Session
of the United Nations General Assembly
27 September
2004
Mr. President,
At the outset, allow me to begin by congratulating
Your Excellency Jean Ping on your election to the Presidency of the Fifty-ninth
Session of this Assembly.
The United
Nations has long stood for the loftiest aspirations and
the noblest causes of mankind. In times of strife, it is
the United Nations that holds out the hope of harmony. In
times of deprivation and suffering, it is the United
Nations that holds out the hope of healing.
After
almost 60 years, however, this organization on which we
pin so much hope is finding itself in the midst of an existential
crisis. In a world ever more complex and less predictable,
the UN has been struggling to redefine its meaning, identity,
and relevance for the era of globalization.
To confront
these new realities and more, no challenge will be greater
than making the UN a more effective organization for the
times. No challenge will be greater than living up to the
highest ideals of the UN, with more of our actions, and
less of words.
Our UN
locomotive is powered by the commitment and goodwill of
its members. It can take us as far as we want to go, but
only if we all pull together. It can take us at any speed,
but only if the power of commitment and goodwill is fully
energized. For what it is and for what it will be, the UN
is the creation of its members. So, in demanding more of
the UN, we must also demand more of ourselves. And in asking
the UN to do more, we must also be ready to be committed
more.
The task
ahead of us all is to make sure that all concerted efforts
are made nationally, regionally and globally to advance
the causes the UN stands for and to restore total confidence
in the working of multilateralism.
Mr. President,
Multilateralism
cannot thrive nor sustain without foundation. The foundation
of the UN and its multilateralism may be its 191 member
states. But what bond that binds the 191 member states to
the UN multilateral system?
The world’s
strategic, political and economic landscape of the 21st
century is certainly so far different from that of 1945,
more complex and more intertwined. The layers of interwoven
fiber that support such a multilateral institution as the
United Nations must be modified and strengthened. It is
Thailand’s belief
that given today’s international landscape, there is greater
need than ever to create new layers of regional and sub-regional
building blocks to strengthen the UN multilateral foundation.
These building blocks are the bond that binds nations to
the multilateral system.
In so
doing, these regional and sub-regional building blocks must
bear the responsibility of supporting and advancing the
UN’s goals on security and development: reducing poverty,
combating international terrorism, fighting transnational
crime, promoting human dignity and human rights and upholding
the human race as a whole.
In Southeast Asia, ASEAN is to create its three pillared community:
the ASEAN Economic Community, the ASEAN Security Community
and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community by the year 2020.
The realization of ASEAN communities, like in other regional
or subregional communities, requires bridging the gap of
development.
It was
Thailand’s
initiative to take up the role to build that bridge by introducing
the Economic Cooperation Strategy, known as ACMECS, laying
the faster track to sustainable development for her neighboring
countries: Cambodia,
Laos,
Myanmar and Vietnam. Creating more jobs and narrowing
the income gap, this economic cooperation strategy will
serve as a building block for the ASEAN’s 3 pillared communities.
Reaching
out further to the east, the ASEAN 10 are working with the
East Asian friends to create the East Asian Community comprising
the ASEAN 10, China, Japan
and the Republic
of Korea.
To the west, Thailand sees the need to connect Southeast Asia’s
development with the friends in South
Asia. The first Summit of BIMSTEC, the cooperation
of 7 countries in Southeast and South Asia around the Bay
of Bengal, took place in Thailand in July, agreeing on a Free
Trade Agreement within the group, which forms an economic
and development bridge between the two subregions.
These
building blocks and partnership are part and parcel of the
firm foundation for the Asia Cooperation Dialogue or the
ACD, the first pan-Asian development forum. The ACD was
initiated out of Thailand’s conviction in the virtue
of partnership in drawing strength from diversity, making
diversity no longer what tears us apart but a force that
unites us together. With 25 member countries from every
part of Asia, and still
growing, the two-and-a-half year old ACD will become an
important building block for multilateral cooperation and
the UN multilateral system. Through such building blocks,
we can learn to live with one another’s differences, to
cultivate a culture of peace and tolerance to counteract
the violence and terror in today’s world.
Mr. President,
We cherish
multilateralism as the best means to secure peace around
the world. We cherish multilateralism as the best means
to develop prosperity around the world. But above all, we
cherish multilateralism as the best means to achieve both
security and development of the world. By the same token, state security and human
security that brings development must always be the two
sides of the same coin.
From
Iraq to Saudi Arabia,
from Indonesia
to Russia,
shocking acts of terror have broken out, seemingly calculated
to shake confidence and undermine hope. As civilized societies,
we must come together to fight terrorism in all its forms
and manifestations, wherever it may occur. Terrorism is
a direct threat to state security, but it also undermines
human security.
That
is why development of human security and state security
must proceed on parallel tracks. Today the world cannot
be a secure place if its population is still suffering from
poverty and deprivation. The world today cannot really be
peaceful if we cannot be successful in our effort to make
progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
This
is why Thailand
prescribes to the enhancement of human security as a means
to make the nation secure. Domestically, the Ministry of
Social Development and Human Security is in charge of our
policy and implementation. Internationally, we are active
in the Human Security Network and other international arena
where human security issues are at paramount.
Thailand has long advocated
the balanced development of freedom from fear and freedom
from want as the two inseparable prongs of human security.
We intend to continue to do so even more intensively as
Thailand
assumes the chairmanship of the Human Security Network in
2005-2006. We intend to further advocate this balanced development
by embracing partnership between government and civil society.
The Human
Security Network Statement issued in Thailand
on the eve of the 15th International AIDS Conference in
Bangkok last July, which was attended by over
25,000 people and recognized HIV/AIDS as an issue of both
development and human security, clearly reflects development
and security as part and parcel of each other.
We look
at the issue of landmines in the same light. They are as
much a humanitarian issue as a development one. As President
of the Fifth Meeting of the States Parties to the Mine Ban
Convention, I have been working with the World Bank to reflect
this approach in carrying out the mine action. I am grateful
for the Bank’s cooperation in realizing the development
dimension of the landmine issue. I also appreciate the Bank’s
readiness to mobilize resources for the training of de-miners
and capacity building for survivors so that they may function
as productive members of society. We are confident that
the World Bank partnership will provide State Parties to
the Convention with greater resources to achieve the Convention’s
goal.
Mr. President,
While
we are trying to secure peace for the world, while there
are attempts to shatter our world’s peace and security with
terror, fear, hatred and violence, while many are struggling
to fight against poverty, and while we are making our pledge
for the Millennium Development Goals, the multilateral system
that we need to rely upon is facing the challenges and threats
on its effectiveness of magnitude and proportion never seen
before.
But amidst
those challenges, however, we are fortunate to see today
some nations building partnership with nations; nations
learning to live with differences and turning their differences
and diversity into common strength; and nations learning
to undergo higher level of tolerance economically, culturally
and politically to nurture a culture of peace and a culture
of tolerance.
Through
building blocks just as Thailand has been initiating in
Asia, through Africa, through Latin America, Europe and
elsewhere, and through the South-South cooperation, a number
of responsible nations are ready to make contribution in
their own way to turn differences into cooperation and partnership.
They are partnership and building blocks that deal with
security and development: the two main parameters of the
UN. They are partnership and building blocks that can provide
layers of foundation for more effective functioning of the
UN multilateral system, the system that seeks redefining
and redesigning to respond effectively to the new geo-socio
and political landscape of the world.
Present-day
realities – the emergence of building blocks, the inextricable
linkage between development and security, and the need to
develop human and state security on parallel tracks – clearly
reflect how much the world has changed since 1945.
That
is why UN reform is not a mere question of effectiveness
of any particular organ of this august body. Nor is it merely
a question of number and composition. It is more fundamental
therefore to ask some of these pertinent questions?
-
How can the UN be made responsive to new needs and realities
and equally address the issues of security and development?
-
What would be the mechanism to deal adequately with the issues
of development and long-term global economic issues?
-
What would be the mechanism to deal adequately with post-conflict
nation building and reconstruction?
-
What would be the mechanism for greater participation of civil
society, recognizing them as important constituency for
development and conflict resolution?
-
What could be a linkage between the UN multilateral system
and regional, subregional and inter-regional cooperation,
recognizing them as important building blocks for more effective
multilateralism?
-
The Security Council reform is needed. That much is not in
doubt. But if expansion is needed, what are the realistic
criteria for the expansion to reach greater effectiveness?
Does it need to be more transparent? What are the roles
and relationship among its members?
-
For the General Assembly, a body represented now by almost
200 member states, more than three times bigger than at
the UN foundation, is it too cumbersome and do we remain
content with its work process? The UNGA needs to be streamlined, energized,
and be more focused.
Mr. President,
These
are not all the questions asked. And Thailand is not the
only one asking. But all of us will have to find the answers.
While we are all entitled to different views, opinions,
and analyses, ultimately the decision must be made by us,
the members of the United Nations.
Reform
of such a venerable institution is never easy. We have to
be realistic about that. But I have faith in the far-sightedness
and wisdom of UN members to take a holistic view and choose
the right path, even if it is the path less traveled. Thailand
pledges to apply all our experiences in forging partnerships
to play a responsible and constructive role in contributing
to the UN reform process. We have supported the High-Level
Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change and will look forward
to its report in December as well as the fruitful and constructive
debate by all of us thereafter.
Whether
the UN recovers from its mid-life crisis or sinks into irrelevance
is up to us, the member states. For what it is and what
it will be, the United Nations is our own creation made
of our own commitment and goodwill. It is up to us to rise
to the challenge. Only when nations are united, will we
get the United Nations.
Thank
you.
